Sect and Clan

Other

Lack of Dreams Before Waking (Personal for Kaya Miakoda): Oddly, you have had no dreams for the past two days, ever since you returned from Amsterdam.

You feel a strange and terrible sense of coldness upon waking up tonight, however.

Bureaucracy

Bureaucracy x1: The New York City Health Department is still dealing with the fallout from a TB-infected nurse at St. Barnabas in the Bronx who exposed hundreds of patients and the instance where 17 people were subjected to non-consensual illegal dentistry to give them fangs.

Bureaucracy x2: The city is moving ahead with plans to offer up to $5,000 a year to poor families who meet certain benchmarks like attending parent-teacher conferences, holding down a full-time job, and going for medical checkups.

Bureaucracy x4: The Council on American-Islamic Relations has made inquiries about obtaining the necessary permits to hold a large rally later this spring.

Church

Church x1: Local Christians/Jews gearing up for Easter/Passover. Much fun/guilt will be had by all.

Church x2: The Dogwood tree outside the window of the hospital where Christine Darkwater died continues to bloom. There are whispers that it will never stop. It's kept blooming for far beyond what a dogwood tree's life cycle should allow.

Church x3: The Council on American-Islamic Relations is beginning to make noise about a possible protest to be held later this spring.

Church x5: Abbé St. John (the leader of the now condemned Cenacle of Saint Jude) has been found to have kept a diary. The contents are closely under wraps.

Church x6: The diary indicates what the Church suspected all along. Ferdinand St. John was a Heretic, who aided members of the damned and betrayed his fellows in the process. The journal details how he saved a devil whom the Society had captured in the Bronx, and then tended him for moths, attempting foolishly to convert him to the will of God.
It is now almost certain that whatever creature Ferdinand preserved has escaped and that it is possibly the causes of Abbé St. John's death.

Church x7: The S.A.D. has seized Abbé St. John's diary. The Church suspects it may foolhardily try to continue where the Cenacle failed.

Deus vult.

Finance

Finance x1: Security is the new keyword as several mid-sized firms in New York. Better cameras, better logs, better monitoring and much better data security. Increased background checks are also being implemented, even for existing employees.
Many local small to mid-sized firms are in the midst of layoffs. Most of those being targeted, oddly enough, are mid- to high-level managers. The timing on these dismissals is unusual, as is the number of firms affected. Many start-ups are just happy to have all this experienced talent on the market for relatively cheap (due to the number of people looking for work simultaneously).

Finance x2: Several local industrial firms are in the midst of a round of layoffs.

In fact, most of the people recently laid off have either retired, joined/founded start-ups or moved out of town.

Vontaug's new plant expansion will be opening with much fanfare in two weeks time.

Finance x3: A few more mid - high level managers with good track records have been inexplicably pushed out at several small to mid-sized firms in New York (continuing a trend that has been going on almost a month now). These firms tend to specialize in complicated investment vehicles catering to highly sophisticated buyers. The employers and laid off workers are aggressively keeping the reasons for these layoffs under wraps.

Finance x4: Vontaug has recently issued new guidelines for firms managing its money or otherwise taking contracts from it. These guidelines include stricter data protection and security requirements, as well as tighter personal requirements. If firms do not comply within six weeks, they will no longer receive business from Vontaug, its affiliates or its subsidiaries. For those who accept the new terms, there are strong penalties should there be a security breach or should an employee cause problems for Vontaug. Less than four weeks remain...

Vontaug is somehow related to some of the recent layoffs.

Finance x5: A handful of those recently fired had a reputation for questionable ethical practices.

Part of the new Vontaug guidelines is a 'do not employ' list.

Health

Health x1: Furor over the TB infections at St. Barnabas have been dying down due to increasing furor over the seventeen victims of "illegal, non-consensual dentistry" that were brought in two weeks ago. No, I'm not kidding, that's what they called it in the press release.

Health x2: Someone picked up seventeen people, messed with their heads and then did illegal dentistry on them. Fortunately, they were picked up and brought in for treatment before they could hurt themselves. Get this - they think they are vampires.
The publicity around the 'vampire' incident has taken the spotlight off the TB incident. The lawyers like this. They like it a great deal.

Health x3: Someone somewhere somehow got illegal dental work done on seventeen people to give them fake fangs. No doctor or dentist in their right mind would do such a thing. No one knows who did it. Students at all the dental schools are being heavily questioned, but no one has cracked yet.

Health x4: There are some irregularities in the dental work done on the seventeen victims of illegal dentistry.

The lawyers are descending upon the TB victims with red tape, small print and indemnity forms galore! With the limelight shifting to the weird vampire thing, no one cares about the TB victims anymore!

Health x5: The dental work was done in a weird way - the caps were not anchored the way it normally would be. There is some idle suspicion that it was done by someone foreign, but people are being encouraged to worry less about who did it and how than on making the problem go away.

Beyond the dentistry, there were other things not right about these guys. Some had muscle atrophy in really weird ways. Their delusions are very persistent. Perhaps one of those shrinks who specializes in implanting memories of abuse into children decided to branch out?

High Society

High Society x1: The Ground Zero Arts Center is down to one theater company, after the Signature Theater Company pulled out.

High Society x2: Coin pieces are the new thing, for reasons neither you nor your contacts fully understand. Several otherwise unremarkable designers started using old coins in various jewelry and installations and for some reason, people are eating it up.

By all accounts, Cabaret has gone downhill considerably since the departure of Natalie Hemming. Her replacement simply lacks her on-stage presence.

Scuttlebutt is that there was some sort of tiff between the James Houghton, artistic director of Signature and the Mayor's office

High Society x3: The Central Park Boathouse has been cited by the city comptroller for failing to pay hundreds of thousands of dollars in fees and penalties.

There is talk about attempting to arrange for Natalie Hemming to come back to Cabaret briefly, a la Nathan Lane in the The Producers. The show's underwriters are still weighing the payoffs given the expected high cost of bringing her back.

High Society x4: The irregularities cited at the Boathouse included things that obviously smack of attempts to cultivate favors and influence by doing things like arranging for the city to pay people's food.

Angry words were definitely exchanged between Hougton and someone in the mayor's office. It's unclear who initiated the pull-out, but it doesn't really matter, it would have happened anyway.

High Society x5: A chemical engineer from the University of Delaware named Norman Wagner attended an alumni networking event held in New York City recently. By all accounts, it was a remarkably tolerable affair. By some stroke of luck, a group of excited and excitable graduate students and industry representatives cornered Dr. Wagner early on and managed to avoid having him wander about discussing utterly incomprehensible nonsense all evening.

High Society x6:New York Times Publisher Arthur Ochs Sulzberger recently had something of a fit at a small gathering for the well-connected. Rumor has it the topic was Karl Rove.

Industry

Industry x1: Security and monitoring equipment for large-scale facilities has been getting scarce in the greater New York area, which is driving up prices. Someone's buying up a lot of it.

Vontaug's new plant expansion will be opening (with much fanfare) in two weeks time.

Industry x2: Layoff rounds are continuing at many small area firms.

New supplier guidelines have been issued for companies wishing to do business with Vontaug. The period until compliance is mandatory and only allowed six weeks. Two weeks are left. Companies are scrambling to accommodate the new terms. Significantly increased security measures are among the new requirements.

Industry x3: Wu Industries is continuing its efforts to expand its operations into New York.

There are rumblings that some of Vontaug's suppliers do not intend to comply with the new terms and are considering legal action about some of the terms unrelated to security. Vontaug's basic attitude toward these people can be best summed up as 'Bring it, bitch'

Many of Vontaug's suppliers seem to be doing layoffs in conjunction with the new supplier guidelines.

Industry x4: The layoffs (and lawsuits) are due to a 'do not employ' list issued by Vontaug.

Industry x5: The recent burst of new security measures and supplier guidelines are due to a paranoid rampage by Vontaug CEO Bromme Friedrich.

Legal

Legal x1: At this point, most of the best medical malpractice lawyers have been tapped by someone. Whoever it is, they're willing to drop a lot of money to be sure that anyone trying to sue for malpractice is going to have an uphill battle.

Feelers are still going out for lawyers specializing in wrongful termination.

Legal x2: The DA's office has been having a fun game of "Not it!" in relation to the recent incident with the people who were made to think they were vampires. No one wants to touch this - I mean, come on. How the hell do you even begin to tackle this case.

There continue to be trickle of people interested in filing wrongful termination suits. In most cases, they're being turned away by respectable/competent lawyers because they don't have much of a case. The less intelligent shysters are jumping all over it, hoping to make a quick buck.

Legal x3: Some well-to-do money managers have been inquiring about wrongful termination suits. They are generally turned away unhappy due to small print in their contract.

The malpractice lawyers are getting tapped for the St. Barnabas TB outbreak and now for the weird illegal dentistry incident.

The lead attorneys for the city's white-collar crime division have been pulling long hours lately and are quite excited about something, although it's not clear what. They're really pushing the security on this case. The fraud guys have also been having a field day.

Legal x4: There's talk about a bunch of fraud indictments coming down the pipe in the near future. Apparently, they just fell into the city's lap. Hence the excitement. The investigators are still working their way through several boxes of evidence.

Something big and bad happened at St. Barnabas - you can't get the full details but its apparently the sort of thing that malpractice attorneys would salivate over if they could get an in. Money's flowing like water to keep this under wraps.

There is talk about a possible wave of organized crime prosecutions, but it is very hush-hush.

Media

Media x1: CNN executive Darren West, the genius behind New York by Night, hasn't been heard from for almost two months. Police efforts to find him have been, thus far, unsuccessful.
The city is moving ahead with plans to offer up to $5,000 a year to poor families who meet certain benchmarks like attending parent-teacher conferences, holding down a full-time job and going for medical checkups.

Media x2: West's name has been bandied about lately in relation to some funny business at NYPD.

Media x3: When good dentists go bad! After a few days of initial confusion, this seems to be the conclusion reached by the major papers of how to explain the appearance of seventeen people subject to illegal dental work to give them fangs.

The NYPD contacts of the various news agencies are increasingly asking about possible connections between Darren West, officials in the NYPD and illegal police activities carried out during the fall of 2006. Naturally, those in the media are aghast at any such suggestion.

Vontaug's new plant expansion will be opening with much fanfare in two weeks time.

Occult

Occult x1: Lucasta hasn't shown himself visibly for a while, yet people professing to be Lucasta's disciplines are everywhere. The vigilante street hero is said to be the prophet of mankind's last days and to bring about an age of peace and goodwill. He's become a major subculture icon, and minor cults are forming in his name.

The idea that Lucasta is capable of walking on water has become firmly entrenched in public perceptions of the figure.

"The Age of the Lightbringer" is said to be at hand.

Occult x3: The Dogwood tree outside the window of the hospital where Christine Darkwater died continues to bloom. There are whispers that it will never stop. It's kept blooming for far beyond what a dogwood tree's life cycle should allow.

Occult x4: Police have given up looking for connections between the "occult room" at Columbia University Library and various people in the scene. No one credible has come forward from within the community to back the allegations. People within the occult community are both bemused and insulted by what they see as yet another attempt to blame them for everything that goes wrong in the world.

Occult x5: That crazy old guy's been wandering around 'helping' people find 'appropriate' occult books. Again. Dammit. Caught him giving some goth teenager some things that really shouldn't be handed out to anyone. One of these days, he's going to get someone possessed. And it's not like we can have him arrested, "No, officer, he didn't hurt anyone, he just gave them materials that would allow them to summon a demon to kill himself and all his friends. No, I'm fine. No, I'm not on medication. ... Yes, I would like to call my lawyer." sigh. I need another drink.

Police

Police x1: There has recently been a considerable upheaval at the NYPD. Several dozen people have been promoted, demoted or reassigned, some of them quite prominent or influential officers. It's not really clear what led to this shuffle, but the general consensus around the department is that it is due to the weird stuff happening of late.

Christ! Now it's some fucked up dental student kidnapping people, giving them fangs, messing with their heads and leaving them duck-taped in the street. At least the person who found them, whoever they were, called in the experts quickly. Guess this is the task force of the week...

Police x2: There have definitely been some serious shuffles in the unofficial power structure of the NYPD.

The name Darren West has been coming up increasingly often in the NYPD. There are rumors circulating that he was somehow involved with the Motley incidents last fall. These rumors are vehemently denied by higher-ups in the department.

Get this - it wasn't just fangs that these poor schmucks had. They had some other weird stuff going on too. And they thought they were vampires.

Police x3: The planned roll-out of a new system of digital cameras on New York's buses has been delayed due to technical difficulties.

The tip that secret societies and local book store owners specializing in pagan and new age materials might have some connection to the "occult room" at Columbia University Library has not turned up anything useful. Although some people who might charitably be labeled "weirdos" swore that they had bee inside the complex, their statements inevitably turned out to be inconsistent with evidence found in the rooms themselves. The police are giving up on this one as a dry hole.

The hospitals have been very helpful in running down leads on the "non-consensual, illegal dentistry" incident.

Police x4: The difficulty with the cameras was specifically that inexplicable gaps were found when recordings were reviewed.

Politics

Politics x1: The Ground Zero Arts Center is down to one theater company, after the Signature Theater Company pulled out.

The city is moving ahead with plans to offer up to $5,000 a year to poor families who meet certain benchmarks like attending parent-teacher conferences, holding down a full-time job, and going for medical checkups.

Politics x2: Scuttlebutt is that there was some sort of tiff between the James Houghton, artistic director of Signature and the Mayor's office.

Politics x3: The thing with Houghton may have involved one of the mayor's personal aides.

The new program to award poor families for performing 'good deeds' has the mayor's political machine salivating at the vote-buying opportunities.

Street

Street x1: The crazy car truck attacks seem to have stopped, but word on the street is to watch out for drunk frat boys in dental school. Hobos are once again traveling in packs and falling back on habits from the nights when the "Street Devil" roamed.

Street x3: Someone was ballsy enough to ask for a face to face meeting with Throat Cutter Hernandez. It was the same scruffy faggot that was on the cover of the tabloid recently. He got the meeting too... The name was ... Omorescu.

Street x4: Among the seventeen people subjected to unwanted dental work were several of those who dissappeared mysteriously several weeks ago...

Street x5: Some people have been making inneffective efforts to grow a network of contacts on the streets of New York. Two people, in fact. One a charming young woman wandering the streets of Staten Island and the other a somewhat less charming man who is making inroads all over the place, but has not yet had much success.

Transportation

Transportation x1: Several shipping and trucking companies are unhappy with Vontaug's recent demands. Some are threatening legal action.

Transportation x2: Vontaug has issued new guideline for those doing business with it. They include additional background checks, data-protection measures, etc. There are also heavy penalties if the wrong sorts slip through the cracks. The truckers, in particular, are not happy. They usually do not worry this much about screening their workers.

Some of the companies threatening legal action over the new guidelines are being bankrolled by someone.

Transportation x3: The new guidelines include a 'do not employ' list. There is some resistance among some of the shadier firms about this point - they don't want to let some of these people go.

The planned roll-out of a new system of digital cameras on New York's buses has been delayed due to technical difficulties.

Transportation x4: The strongest resistance to Vontaug's new guidelines is coming from the shippers and truckers you know to be dirty.

Underworld

Underworld x1: Someone was ballsy enough to ask for a face to face meeting with Throat Cutter Hernandez. It was the same scruffy faggot that was on the cover of the tabloid recently. He got the meeting too... The name was ... Omorescu.

Some weird shit is happening that has the bigwigs spooked in a major way, although its not immediately clear what.